THE METROPOLITAN OPERA SERIES

Playing at select Goodrich Quality Theater: Canton Cinema, Eastside 9, Forum 8, Hamilton 16 IMAX, Holland 7, Jackson 10, Kalamazoo 10, Krafft 8, Lansing Mall Cinema, Oxford 7, Portage 16 IMAX, Quality 16, Randall 15 IMAX, Saginaw 8, Savoy 16, W. Columbia 7, and Willow Knolls 14

The Metropolitan Opera: Les Contes d’Hoffmann

LIVE IN HD: Saturday December 19, 2009, 1PM E/ 12 PM C

Synopsis: NCM Fathom brings the ultimate stage spectacle - The Met: Live in HD - to movie theatre screens nationwide. The broadcast of Offenbach’s opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT in select movie theatres.  Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this new production, returning after the triumph of his Met Barber of Seville (seen live in HD in the 2006–07 season). Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey.

Encore Presentation: Wednesday January 6, 2010, 6:30 PM (local time)

Running Time: 4 hours, 10 minutes

The Metropolitan Opera: Der Rosenkavalier

LIVE IN HD: Saturday January 9, 2010, 1PM E/ 12 PM C

Synopsis: NCM Fathom brings the ultimate stage spectacle - The Met: Live in HD - to movie theatre screens nationwide. The broadcast of Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT in select movie theatres.   Strauss’s comic masterpiece of love and intrigue in 18th-century Vienna stars Renée Fleming as the aristocratic Marschallin and Susan Graham in the trouser role of her young lover.

Encore Presentation: January 27, 2010, 6:30 PM (local time)

Running Time: 4 hours, 50 minutes

The Metropolitan Opera: Carmen

LIVE IN HD: Saturday January 16, 2010, 1PM E/ 12 PM C

Synopsis: NCM Fathom brings the ultimate stage spectacle - The Met: Live in HD - to movie theatre screens nationwide. The broadcast of Bizet’s opera Carmen will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT in select movie theatres.  One of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen “is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom,” says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre about his new production of Bizet’s drama. “It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It’s sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking.”

Encore Presentation: Wednesday February 3, 2010, 6:30 PM (local time)

Running Time: 4 hours, 5 minutes

The Metropolitan Opera: Simon Boccanegra

LIVE IN HD: Saturday February 6, 2010, 1PM E/ 12 PM C

Synopsis: NCM Fathom brings the ultimate stage spectacle - The Met: Live in HD - to movie theatre screens nationwide.  The broadcast of Verdi’s opera Simon Boccanegra will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT in select movie theatres.  Four decades into a legendary Met career, tenor Plácido Domingo makes history singing the title role in Verdi’s gripping political thriller, which is written for a baritone. James Levine conducts.

Encore Presentation: Wednesday February 24, 2010, 6:30 PM (local time)

Running Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes

The Metropolitan Opera: Hamlet

LIVE IN HD: Saturday March 27, 2010, 1PM E/ 12 PM C

Synopsis: NCM Fathom brings the ultimate stage spectacle - The Met: Live in HD - to movie theatre screens nationwide. The broadcast of Thomas’s opera Hamlet will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT in select movie theatres.The works of Shakespeare have inspired more operatic adaptations than any other writer’s. Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard’s most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet. For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.

Encore Presentation: Wednesday April 14, 2010, 6:30 PM (local time)

Running Time: 3 hours, 50 minutes  

The Metropolitan Opera: Armida

LIVE IN HD: Saturday May 1, 2010, 1PM E/ 12 PM C

Synopsis: NCM Fathom brings the ultimate stage spectacle - The Met: Live in HD - to movie theatre screens nationwide.  The transmission of Rossini’s opera Armida will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT in select movie theatres.  This mythical story of a sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison has inspired operatic settings by a multitude of composers, including Gluck, Haydn, and Dvořák. Renée Fleming stars in the title role of Rossini’s version, opposite no fewer than six tenors. Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman returns to direct this new production of a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels.”  The fanciful and magical tale, Zimmerman says, “has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element.”

Encore Presentation: Wednesday May 19, 2010, 6:30 PM (local time)

Running Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes